Title: An integrated closed loop returnable transport for perishable products in a green inventory routing system using heterogeneous vehicles and uncertainty in to and fro supply

Authors: Manoj Kumar; Dinesh Kumar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India

Abstract: The paper discusses an integrated returnable transport items (RTIs) for some perishable products in closed loop green inventory system having heterogeneous vehicles and uncertainty to and fro supply. It prolongs the standard inventory routing problem by considering the joint flow of integrated RTI with perishable products. The study emphasises how a distributor simultaneously plan to perform multi functions efficiently, i.e., delivery of perishable products, pick up of empty RTI and unused products from the retailers. A comprehensive objective function has been proposed and a model has been developed as a chance constrained problem and approximated as a mixed-integer problem. The model is tested with examples and results are analysed to benefits of heterogeneous fleet and comprehensive objective functions. Further, sensitivity analysis has been carried out to examine the impact of shelf life, time window, demand variability and service level.

Keywords: returnable transport items; RTIs; closed loop inventory routing system; heterogeneous vehicles; perishable product; CO2 emissions; demand uncertainty; supply chain; SC.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2023.129013

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2023 Vol.44 No.2, pp.147 - 178

Accepted: 09 Sep 2020
Published online: 14 Feb 2023 *

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